During the process of testing a packet switch, it may be helpful to generate a test packet using software. Creating the test packet typically involves specifying binary values for many, if not all, of the bits of the test packet. Doing so may not only be tedious and time consuming, but may also require significant training and expertise.
Often, new packet switch features involve adding new fields to a packet, removing existing fields from a packet, or modifying values of existing fields of a packet. Testing such features may involve a test engineer manually searching through binary or hexadecimal values representing the bits of a packet that has been processed by the packet switch to verify that the packet switch properly modified the packet.
For example, a feature may add a field to packets received by the packet switch prior to forwarding the received packets. Verification of such a feature may involve manually searching through binary or hexadecimal values of a processed packet to find the added field and then determining whether the added field is in the correct position within the packet and whether the added field has a correct value. Doing so may be time consuming and may be prone to error due to the tedious nature of such verification.